Nutshell: Huskies again can't master rival in final

Updated 1:10 am, Wednesday, March 13, 2013

History repeated itself for the UConn women's basketball team Tuesday. Again, the third-ranked Huskies had a chance to knock off rival Notre Dame in the final seconds. Again, they came up short.

A layup by Natalie Achonwa with 1.8 seconds left gave the Irish a 61-59 win over UConn in the Big East tournament final in Hartford. The winning play was set up by a turnover by Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis with seven seconds remaining. It was the fourth turnover in the final 3:37 for the Huskies.

It is the first time since the 1992-93 season that UConn (29-4) has not won either the Big East regular-season or tournament championship. The Huskies dropped to 6-1 against Notre Dame in the tournament final and 10-1 all-time in the tournament.

The Irish (31-1) earned their first conference tournament championship.

Both teams are expected to be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. The Huskies will begin their quest for an NCAA record-tying eighth national championship at Gampel Pavilion on March 23.

UConn has lost seven of the last eight games in the series. The Irish also earned a 73-72 win at Gampel Pavilion on Jan. 5 and a 96-87 win in triple overtime at home over UConn on March 4.

STAR OF THE GAME: Tournament Most Outstanding Player Kayla McBride. She had 23 points and four rebounds in 37 minutes

KEYS TO THE LOSS: The Irish used a 20-4 run to open a 20-8 lead with 12:57 left in the first half. UConn had scoreless spells of 3:48 and 2:13 ... The Huskies later closed to within 24-22, but the Irish answered with 11 straight points. ... The Huskies shot 35.5 percent from the field in the first half. ... Mosqueda-Lewis was 2-of-8 from the field in the first half. ... Bria Hartley committed two turnovers in a span of 20 seconds with UConn trailing 57-53. ... Mosqueda-Lewis was 3-of-12 from the field. ... The Huskies were 0-of-5 from 3-point range.